{"id":239408,"date":"2017-08-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/comic-guru-calls-san-diego-home\/"},"modified":"2017-08-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T07:00:00","slug":"comic-guru-calls-san-diego-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/comic-guru-calls-san-diego-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Comic guru calls San Diego home\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Expanding her heart \u2014 and her brand \u2014 from a Downtown hostel<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Joyell Nevins\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jez Ibelle, San Diego resident via Florida and Michigan, is making her mark in the comic book arena \u2014 and has adopted Downtown as her permanent home base. Last year, at her third San Diego Comic-Con, the editor of First Comic News connected with another transplant \u2026 and never left.<\/p>\n

In July of 2016, she arrived at the RK Hostel in Little Italy at 1 a.m. in advance of Comic-Con. Two days later, she was still talking to the man who checked her in, and he offered to help her get a job at the hostel. The Monday after the conference ended, Ibelle missed her flight and never looked back.<\/p>\n

\"Comic
Jez Ibelle landed in San Diego for Comic-Con last year and never left. (Courtesy Jez Ibelle)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI fell in love on the back deck of a hostel,\u201d she said. \u201cI moved here with a backpack and a suitcase.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She is now a permanent resident at the RK Buckner Hostel, and continues to grow her comic brand. Although digital technology enables her to work from just about anywhere, Ibelle is invested in this city.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI love San Diego \u2014 why would you not?\u201d she said, gesturing to the expanse of Downtown from her rooftop view.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That impulsive, all-in attitude has marked many of Ibelle\u2019s business and life choices \u2014 and propelled her into colorful adventures. From a geek-celebrating podcast in Detroit, to a conversation with \u201cThe Flash\u201d writer Josh Williamson in New York, to being a First Comic News panelist in San Diego, Ibelle has pursued a variety of writing and speaking opportunities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn networking, nothing happens unless you open your mouth,\u201d she said. \u201cIf they say yes, they say yes. But if not, you\u2019ll never know if you don\u2019t open your mouth.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Comic
Ibelle in costume Hex from an indy comic, “Dry Spell 2,” which has not been published yet. “Dry Spell,” by Ken Krekeler was published by Action Lab Comics. (Courtesy Jez <\/em>Ibelle)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ibelle has made it a habit to not only open her mouth, but to seek advice from experts in her field and follow it.<\/p>\n

At a comic convention in Michigan, she sought out Mike Zapcic and Ming Chen from the television series \u201cComic Book Men\u201d (among other credits) and asked them, \u201cHow do you present yourself as a personality?\u201d Their first recommendation was \u201cGet on a podcast!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, still at the convention, Ibelle tracked down some people who worked with Podcast Detroit, an entertainment podcast network.<\/p>\n

Less than three hours later, she was a guest on a podcast they were doing from the convention \u2014 which then turned into a host spot on a new show \u201cGeek-a-pedia.\u201d (\u201cGeek-a-pedia\u201d has since gone off air, but previous episodes can still be accessed at podcastdetroit.com<\/a>)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Turning connections into #goals is one of the reasons Ibelle loves San Diego Comic-Con.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single person you would need to achieve your goal is under one roof,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And for fandom purposes, meeting people like Brian O\u2019Halloran, original star of \u201cClerks,\u201d or Grant Morrison, writer of \u201cNameless,\u201d doesn\u2019t hurt either.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although she works in the comic field now, Ibelle didn\u2019t grow up reading them. It wasn\u2019t until she was living in Rhode Island in 2012 (Ibelle has crisscrossed the country several times) that she first embraced the genre. Always the gamer (Sega Genesis is what she grew up playing), Ibelle was exploring her neighborhood and discovered a comic book store. It didn\u2019t take too many volumes for her to fall in love with the genre; although for Ibelle, after DC\u2019s \u201cA Death in the Family\u201d turned out to be a major disappointment, she now goes \u201cAll Indy. All the time.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She worked out a deal with the store owner to work in exchange for comic books . . . and here\u2019s where the first connection in the editorial field was made. At the time, Ibelle was dating a stand-up comedian. He had performed a show at a party for the wife of First Comic News managing editor Matt Szewczyk. About five months after that, Szewczyk ran into him and Ibelle at the shop where she was then working.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Comic
Ibelle posing with actor Brian O\u2019Halloran at
SDCC17 (Courtesy Jez Ibelle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the course of the conversation, it came up that Szewczyk was looking for reviewers for his site. Despite having never written one before, Ibelle had always excelled in English and writing and thought, \u201cWell, I could do that.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Szewczyk agreed to give her a chance. Ibelle started receiving PDF review copies of comics and learning how to write for an online presence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Six months later, Ibelle was back in Florida and partaking in her first comic convention season.<\/p>\n

After attending the Florida Supercon in Miami on press credentials and making a \u201cpretty insane\u201d 27-hour Greyhound ride to the New York Comic Con, she was hooked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to go more,\u201d she said. \u201cI was jonesing \u2013 I love con-ning.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ibelle\u2019s fourth \u201ccon\u201d was in San Diego \u2014 thanks to $600 she found stashed in a drawer that she\u2019d forgotten about \u2014 where she was a guest on the First Comic News panel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI still had no clue what I was doing \u2014 but I was doing it,\u201d Ibelle said with a laugh. \u201cI didn\u2019t say much [on that first panel]. But I listened.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the panelists was from Bleeding Cool, a comic news site and magazine, who spoke about the importance of developing your own brand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI took their advice to heart and applied it to my own career,\u201d Ibelle said. \u201cI need [to attract] attention to my personal self to get attention for the comic book reviews. My product is my personality \u2014 people have to know why they should trust me, why they would want to read me.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, Ibelle has taken on editorial responsibilities at First Comic News, hosted the aforementioned podcast, and continued to write her own reviews. She has worked at the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle, met the global brand director for ReedPOP, the coordinator behind NYCC, and was a panelist again at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her next step is to break into the publishing side of the comic world. And to anyone trying to make their own name in comic book reviewing and writing, Ibelle just has three words of advice: \u201cJust. Do. It.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To connect with Ibelle, follow her on Twitter @manyfacesofjez<\/a>. You can read First Comic News at firstcomicsnews.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Joyell Nevins is a freelance writer who can be reached at joyellc@gmail.com<\/a>. Find her blog \u201cSmall World, Big God\u201d at swbgblog.wordpress.com.<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Expanding her heart \u2014 and her brand \u2014 from a Downtown hostel By Joyell Nevins\u00a0 Jez Ibelle, San Diego resident via Florida and Michigan, is making her mark in the comic book arena \u2014 and has adopted Downtown as her permanent home base. Last year, at her third San Diego Comic-Con, the editor of First […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":239409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Comic guru calls San Diego home\u00a0","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}